Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-18
THE OPIUM FARMER.
The Wretched HindOO who Re-
mains Poor.

and labors with but three objects in
view. These are, first, to decorate
his wife profusely with ornaments, to
eat of brass plate, and to be in a
position to make a great display when
his eldest son is married. AS far as
the wife's jewelry is concerned, that is
a matter OF religious duty, the Hindoo
religion demanding that certain
ornaments must be worn by mar
ried women, aud the real wealth, if
wealth it may be called, of the native
landowner is his wifes Jewels, and
whatever husbandman can gain by
his poppy culture he Immediately in
vests in jewelry, the same as the
Yankee farmer places his money in
bond and mortgage. If the Indian
farmer on marrying cannot do any
better in the way of jewelry, he must
give the bride he obtains lead orna-
ments. This keeps the religious form,
but the very first year he has been en-
ergetic enough to raise good opium
crop the lead jewelry gives place to
silver or gold. On the marriage of
his oldest son an Indian farmer will
waste in weeks jollifcation the en-
tire savings of years of privation.
1T is strange sight to see the
Hindoo women at work in the fields,
gathering poppy juice or picking weeds,
decked out with huge gold rings,
bracelets, anklets and chains, and
wearing but a single short petticoat
and gay-colored wrap of light text
ure. The wants of the Indian raiat,
as the farmer is called, are very few
and simple. A thatched roof, cover
ing four confined mud walls,
shelters him, and there are
families who have lived for
hundreds of years, generation after
generation, in the same hovel-like
homestead. The farmers suit of
every day working clothes is a very
scant cloth fastened about his loins.
His dress up suit is big cotton
sheet folded about him. His entire
family, from himself down to the
smallest child he owns, that is not
too small to crawl about among the
poppy plants and know the difference
between a weed and poppy, share in
the toll of the field. The small child
rem are clothed just as they came into
the world, and appear comfortable, no
matter how hot the sun shines or how
low the temperature may fall and in
November, December, January and
February, when the bulk of the field
work is done, the weather is quite
cold enough for at least summer cloth
ing.
"These happy-go-lucky tillers of the
soil depend entirely on the Govern
ment to keep them going year after
year in the matter of farming. Thus
the Government advances the poppy
seed that is to be sown, loans the
money by which the land is irrigated
and the bullocks purchased to carry
on the work The cultivator will not
till more of his land than he can man.
age without other help than his own
immediate family, and consequently
a leased patch to any one farmer
that is half an acre in extent is an ex-
ceptionally large holding. The one
twentieth of an acre, called bigka, is
the favorite quantity of land for a
farmer to seed down with poppies, but
he will put in tenth or a sixth on a
pinch. There are untold advantages
in the growing of opium for extended
enterprise, but the raiat will not ex-
pend the smallest Indian coin to ac-
quire these advantages, and with it
great gain, for the profit in opium pro-
duction is large, owing to the policy OF
the government in paying large prices
for the product as means OF preclud-
ing illicit traffic in it.
"The farmers themselves have no
direct intercourse with the govern
IF
select some native as their representa-
tive or agent with the authorities. He
is called the lambardar. 1t is his
business to give estimates to the gov
ernment agents as to the probable
yield of the farms he represents, on
which the loans and advances may be
based. He manages every transac-
tion between the government and the
people, and for his services he gets a
commission on all the opium he
causes to be delivered to what are
known as the weighing stations
points where the product of certain
districts is carried by the growers and
turned over to the agents.
"The opium gathering begins in
January or February. The poppy
flowers have then given way to the
seed pods, which are lanced in the af-
ternoon. The thick gum, the opium,
exudes from the cut made in the pod,
and at daylight the next morning the
entire family OF a raiat are astir in the
fields, scraping the opium from the
pods, the incisions being carefully
closed again, by rubbing the finger
sharply up and down on the cuts,
which CLUES them. If carefully treated
the pods will expand literally TO six
lancings. The opium is at first placed
in brass vessels and the dew that may
adhere to it is drained off. Then it is
kneaded like dough until it is at the
proper consistency, when it is packed
in new earthem jars and is ready to
be carried to the weighing stations.
"The order to fetch in the years
crop of opium is generally given early
in April, and that is the most interest,
ing season of the year to the raiat and
his family. Each farmer is notified
that ON certain day he must be at
the weighing station of his district for
the testing and weighing. An entire
village, men, women and children,
Join in joyous procession when
this notice is received, and,
laden with the jars OF opium,
start for the destination. They
travel only at night, as the heat of the
sun is so great at that season of the
year that the journey would be unen-
durable. All day they lounge in the
groves and shady lanes, feasting and
Joining in various recreations. These
wayside camps of the opium villages
are picturesque sights to the traveller
through these provinces. When
group arrives at the weighing station
they are arranged in long lines before
the examiner, who examines
the opium Of each one and
marks the quality and weight
of each jar with piece OF